Saturday, 24 July 2010

Despite the furore surrounding the halting of the Building Schools for the Future programme, there will continue to be a need for leaders in education to continue to do what they've always done - inspire children and young people to create new futures through new ways of looking at the world. High quality leadership in schools, colleges and local authorities will be critical to ensure that we have the skills, knowledge and imagination that will equip the next generation to have the tools to meet some of the challenges ahead. Central to this new world will be the need to create more for less, to stretch the limited and limiting resources that will come from the double whammy of cuts in public spending combined with an increase in the student population. This is bound to lead to a decrease in the per capita funding for schools, whilst at the same time central Government will be able to argue that the overall level of public spending in education has gone up.

Moreover, the burgeoning primary school aged population in the South of England will necessitate a need for more school places. Already in parts of London the demand for primary school places is way in excess of the available supply and without capital investment programmes, it's not clear where these children will be educated. The idea that somehow the 'magic hand of the market' will just sprinkle pixie dust on the chronic problems of lack of space, lack of resources and lack of places shows a singular misunderstanding of how to plan schools and is in danger of creating a free for all - with signficant numbers of young people losing out.

One of the benefits of the BSF programme was that it made local authorities think through the issues of demand and supply and plan strategically to meet them. Working with projections for future numbers of school pupils meant that public money wasn't going to be wasted on classrooms which may not be needed and an overview could be taken of the most effective way of using the whole school estate.

A strategic approach to capital investment in schools is critical now, not just because of the need to create spaces which inspire and equip young people for the 21st century, but also because without such a planned approach, we are in danger of wasting public money at a time when we can ill afford to.

Thursday, 22 July 2010

The debate around the halting of the school capital programme has generated a lot of talk about waste. Waste in procurement time, waste in bureacracy, waste in time are all part of the media coverage of the investment in schools. In particular there's been a spotlight on the waste of money spent on consultants who supported the programme. These consultants appear as the devil incarnate 'milking' the taxpayer and diverting valuable money from children in classrooms.

But what's important to remember is that the consultancy firms were all procured through an open exercise under European legislation and that many of the people who worked for these firms were and remain deeply committed to making a difference for children and young people.
Yes the big firms made money on the contracts - that is what they're in it for - but for some of the consultants who worked for them, it was often the joy of working with schools to start to create a future that motivated them.

For these value driven people, who have sat alongside schools through the BSF process running workshops, consulting with children and young people, teachers and support staff, local communities it was the potential of the programme to create projects which would raise the aspirations of communities which for many years had suffered a lack of investment both physical and educational which was their driving force.

The rationale which inspired many to want to work in this area was the desperate need to break the cycle of disadvantage in our communities and to enable the next generation to have a sense of hope, a feeling that education and learning mattered, that, even if they wouldn't be in a new school, their friends, neighbours and even children would. For many it is this deep anger at the way such hope has been dashed that has caused such an outcry - it is not the so called waste of time, money or energy that we need to be incensed about - it is the waste of hope, inspiration and the sense that education can make the future different that will in the end be the ultimate waste of the next generation.

Sunday, 11 July 2010

Given the change in Government and their commitment to wholesale change in state education - I am changing my blog to start to cover my personal views and opinions on these developments.....bear with me as shift the emphasis to analysis and critique.